Confirmed tornado damages Frankton-Lapel Schools administration building

This story has been updated.

The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado was responsible for the damage to the Frankton-Lapel Schools Administration Building on Monday night.

On Tuesday afternoon, a weather service preliminary statement rates the tornado as an EF2.

The service says it began in Hamilton County as an EF0 tornado, damaging a metal barn and a home.

The tornado strengthened before it hit the gymnasium section of the Frankton-Lapel administration building, which was a former school.  Photos from the Madison County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency shows the building torn down to the steel beams.  The survey team has confirmed significant roof and brick wall damage.

Several Frankton-Lapel school buses were also damaged in the storm.  The report says concrete blocks were thrown onto the top of several buses.  And one bus had a “small but long metal support driven through the frame.”

After hitting the Frankton-Lapel building, the tornado moved into a corn field and dissipated.

The school district says it’s waiting on an insurance adjuster and architect, but has hired a contractor to clean up the site.  District officials are working on a transportation plan for the start of school on August 7 that doesn’t include the damaged buses.

Additionally, there were reports of tree and power-line damage in Dublin, Centerville and Cambridge City in Wayne County. Several trees were also reported knocked down near Brookville in Franklin County.

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Stan Sollars is IPR’s Morning Edition host and a senior lecturer in Ball State’s Department of Media.  Contact him at stansollars@bsu.edu.